Meghan: I’m sharing my struggle with suicidal thoughts to help others

The Duchess of Sussex has spoken about her struggles with mental health and suicidal thoughts, and has launched an initiative with her husband to tackle child safety online.

Meghan, who revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey three years ago that she considered suicide while still a royal, said she hoped to help others by speaking out.

“If you’ve been through any kind of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey — and certainly part of mine — is being able to really be open about it,” she said Sunday in a joint interview with Prince Harry on the American network CBS.

“And you know, I haven’t really scratched the surface of my experience. But I do think that I would never want anyone else to feel that way. And I would never want anyone else to make those kinds of plans. And I would never want anyone else to be disbelieved.

“So if by sharing what I’ve overcome I can save someone, or encourage someone in their life to really check in with them and not assume that outwardly everything is okay, then that’s worth it. I’ll get a slap for that.”

The Duchess, 43, spoke as the couple, parents of Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, Parent Network, in partnership with their Archewell Foundation, to provide an online community and resources to help combat social media harm. The No Child Lost to Social Media campaign was created after a two-year pilot program with families whose children had experienced the harmful effects of social media.

Prince Harry said the heartbreak these families endured could happen to anyone. “We always talk about how in the past, if you had your children under your roof, you knew what they were doing. At least they were safe, right? And now they can be in the next room on a tablet or phone and go down these rabbit holes. And before you know it, within 24 hours, they could be committing suicide.”

In the couple’s 2021 interview with Winfrey, Meghan told the talk show host, “Look, I was really embarrassed to say it at the time, and especially embarrassed to have to admit it to Harry, because I know how much loss he’s suffered. But I knew if I didn’t say it, I would … and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. That was a clear, real, terrifying, constant thought.”

Speaking on the Parents’ Network, she told CBS on Sunday: “I think you have to start somewhere, to look at it through the lens of, ‘What if it was my daughter? What if it was my son? My son, or my daughter who comes home, who’s happy, who I love, and one day, right under my roof, our entire lives change because of something that was completely out of our control?'” She said that, as a parent, the only way to look at the problem is to try to find a solution.